Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Kristallnacht
Um, Kristallnacht, um. Howdid that begin for you?
Bright and early in the morning my father went outto get the paper before we knew anything was going on. And he didn't come back.And uh, the man who owned the uh, who was a hair...haircutter, what is it now?
Barber.
Barber. That's the word. Uh, he came up and said hehad been arrested. And then from then on I then saw them coming with the wagonsand they took every Jewish male in our house except my brother. They didn'tcome to our door, they went to all the other doors. They cleared out the house,they cleared out the neighboring houses. And my mother tried to run after thepaddy wagon but she couldn't. And they took him to the uh, police station andthen they collected them from there.
Your father was internedin the local police station?
Yes. And then they um, for several days. And I wentout and my mother felt that I should take the family silver to my aunt who wasnot Jewish. So I packed down with silver walking through Vienna and I saw themburning stuff and looting. They were looting jewelry stores and uh, plaguingpeople. And I got to my aunt and I brought her the stuff and I came home. Uh,so I was aware of the extent of the destruction that had gone on. They wereburning synagogues and smashing things and throwing out Torahs and everything.And my father was interned, kept for about five days. And then he had the goodfortune to find an SS-man who was more sympathetic and he showed him his x-ray,which proved that he didn't have ???. The, the SS-man was not a radiologist, sohe said oh well, you're sick, go home. It was totally arbitrary. Uh, there wasno design on taking this one or that one. So he came home. All of a sudden hecame home.
And you think this iswhen your father determined that it was.
Oh he had determined that before the Anschluss.That was in November.
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